Solar flares are intense bursts of light from the sun. They are created when complicated magnetic fields suddenly and explosively rearrange themselves, converting magnetic energy into light through a process called magnetic ...
Space Exploration
Apr 19, 2016
22
521
Mars has an invisible magnetic "tail" that is twisted by interaction with the solar wind, according to new research using data from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft.
Space Exploration
Oct 20, 2017
3
571
Scientists seeking to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth must deal with sawtooth instabilities—up-and-down swings in the central pressure and temperature of the plasma that fuels fusion reactions, similar ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 31, 2020
4
878
Magnetic reconnection, a universal process that triggers solar flares and northern lights and can disrupt cell phone service and fusion experiments, occurs much faster than theory says that it should. Now researchers at the ...
Plasma Physics
Mar 31, 2017
51
808
A remarkable prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity—the theory that connects space, time, and gravity—is that rotating black holes have enormous amounts of energy available to be tapped.
General Physics
Jan 13, 2021
5
3010
In January 1999, scientists observed mysterious motions within a solar flare.
Astronomy
Jan 27, 2022
28
924
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know space is weird. But just how weird might surprise you. Space is dominated by invisible electromagnetic forces that we typically don't feel. It's also full of bizarre types of matter ...
Space Exploration
Dec 13, 2021
1
74
Space is not empty. A wind of charged particles blows outwards from the Sun, carrying a magnetic field with it. Sometimes this solar wind can break through the Earth's magnetic field. Researchers at the Swedish Institute ...
Space Exploration
Jun 10, 2014
27
4
An international team of researchers has found evidence that magnetic reconnection is the source of spicule generation on the surface of the sun. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their ...
The Earth's magnetic field, or magnetosphere, stretches from the planet's core out into space, where it meets the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun. For the most part, the magnetosphere acts as ...
Space Exploration
Mar 6, 2014
24
4
